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Expositor's Bible Commentary 2 Thessalonians 3:1 Finally, brethren, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may have free course, and be glorified, even as it is with you: Chapter 22 MUTUAL INTERCESSION 2 Thessalonians 3:1-5 (R.V.) THE main part of this letter is now finished. The Apostle has completed his teaching about the Second Advent, and the events which precede and condition it; and nothing remains to dispose of but some minor matters of personal and practical interest. He begins by asking again, as at the close of the First Epistle, the prayers of the Thessalonians for himself and his fellow workers. It was a strength and comfort to him, as to every minister of Christ, to know that he was remembered by those who loved him. in the presence of God. But it is no selfish or private interest that the Apostle has in view When he begs a place in their prayers; it is the interest of the work with which he has identified himself. "Pray for us, that the word of the Lord may run and be glorified." This was the one business and concern of his life; if it went well, all his desires were satisfied. Hardly anything in the New Testament gives us a more characteristic look of the Apostle’s soul than his desire that the word of the Lord should run. The word of the Lord is the gospel, of which he is the principal herald to the nations; and we see in his choice of this word his sense of its urgency. It was glad tidings to all mankind; and how sorely needed wherever he turned his eyes! The constraint of Christ’s love was upon his heart, the constraint of men’s sin and misery; and he could not pass swiftly enough from city to city, to proclaim the reconciling grace of God, and call men from darkness. unto light. His eager heart fretted against barriers and restraints of every description; he saw in them the malice of the great enemy of Christ: "I was minded once and again to come unto you, but Satan hindered me." Hence it is that he asks the Thessalonians to pray for their removal, that the word of the Lord may run. The ardour of such a prayer, and of the heart which prompts it, is far enough removed from the common temper of the Church, especially where it has been long established. How many centuries there were during which Christendom, as it was called, was practically a fixed quantity, shut up within the limits of Western European civilisation, and not aspiring to advance a single step beyond it, fast or slow. It is one of the happy omens of our own time that the apostolic conception of the gospel as an ever-advancing, ever-victorious force, has begun again to take its place in the Christian heart. If it is really to us what it was to St. Paul-a revelation of God’s mercy and judgment which dwarfs everything else, a power omnipotent to save, an irresistible pressure of love on heart and will, glad tidings of great joy that the world is dying for-we shall share in this ardent, evangelical spirit, and pray for all preachers that the word of the Lord may run very swiftly. How it passed in apostolic times from land to land and from city to city-from Syria to Asia, from Asia to Macedonia, from Macedonia to Greece, from Greece to Italy, from Italy to Spain-till in one man’s lifetime, and largely by one man’s labour, it was known throughout the Roman world. It is easy, indeed, to overestimate the number of the early Christians; but we can hardly overestimate the fiery speed with which the Cross went forth conquering and to conquer. Missionary zeal is one note of the true Apostolic Church. But Paul wishes the Thessalonians to pray that the word of the Lord may be glorified, as well as have free course. The word of the Lord is a glorious thing itself. As the Apostle calls it in another place, it is the gospel of the glory of the blessed God. All that makes the spiritual glory of God-His holiness, His love, His wisdom is concentrated and displayed in it. But its glory is acknowledged, and in that sense heightened, when its power is seen in the salvation of men. A message from God that did nothing would not be glorified: it would be discredited and shamed. It is the glory of the gospel to lay hold of men, to transfigure them, to lift them out of evil into the company and the likeness of Christ. For anything else it does, it may not fill a great space in the world’s eye; but when it actually brings the power of God to save those who receive it, it is clothed in glory. Paul did not wish to preach without seeing the fruits of his labour. He did the work of an evangelist; and he would have been ashamed of the evangel if it had not wielded a Divine power to overcome sin and bring the sinful to God. Pray that it may always have this power. Pray that when the word of the Lord is spoken it may not be an ineffective, fruitless word, but mighty through God. There is an expression in Titus 2:10 analogous to this: "Adorning the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things." That expression is less fervent, spoken at a lower level, than the one before us; but it more readily suggests, for that very reason, some duties of which we should be reminded here also. It comes home to all who try to bring their conduct into any kind of relation to the gospel of Christ. It is only too possible for us to disgrace the gospel; but it is in our power also, by every smallest action we do, to illustrate it, to set it off, to put its beauty in the true light before the eyes of men. The gospel comes into the world, like everything else, to be judged on its merits; that is, by the effects which it produces in the lives of those who receive it. We are its witnesses; its character, in the general mind, is as good as our character; it is as lovely as we are lovely, as strong as we are strong, as glorious as we are glorious, and no more. Let us seek to bear it a truer and worthier witness than we have yet done. To adorn it is a calling far higher than most of us have aimed at; but if it comes into our prayers, if its swift diffusion and powerful operation are near our hearts in the sight of God, grace will be given us to do this also. The next request of the Apostle has more of a personal aspect, yet it also has his work in view. He asks prayer that he and his friends may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men: for all men, he says, have not faith. The unreasonable and wicked men were no doubt the Jews in Corinth, from which place he wrote. Their malignant opposition was the great obstacle to the spread of the gospel; they were the representatives and instruments of the Satan who perpetually hindered him. The word here rendered unreasonable is a rare one in the New Testament. It occurs four times in all, and in each case is differently translated: once it is "amiss," once "harm," once "wickedness," and here "unreasonable." The margin in this place renders it "absurd." What it literally means is, "out of place"; and the Apostle signifies by it, that in the opposition of these men to the gospel there was something preposterous, something that baffled explanation; there was no reason in it, and therefore it was hopeless to reason with it. That is a disposition largely represented both in the Old Testament and the New, and familiar to everyone who in preaching the gospel has come into close contact with men. It was one of the great trials of Jesus that He had to endure the contradiction, of those who were sinners against themselves; who rejected the counsel of God in their own despite; in other words, were unreasonable men. The gospel, we must remember, is good news; it is good news to all men. It tells of God’s love to the sinful; it brings pardon, holiness, immortal hope, to everyone. Why, then, should anybody have a quarrel with it? Is it not enough to drive reason to despair, that men should wantonly, stubbornly, malignantly, hate and resist such a message? Is there anything in the world more provoking than to offer a real and indispensable service, out of a true and disinterested love, and to have it contemptuously rejected? That is the fate of the gospel in many quarters; that was the constant experience of our Lord and of St. Paul. No wonder, in the interests of his mission, the Apostle prays to be delivered from unreasonable men. Are there any of us who come under this condemnation? who are senselessly opposed to the gospel, enemies in intention of God, but in reality hurting no one so much as ourselves? The Apostle does not indicate in his prayer any mode of deliverance. He may have hoped that in God’s providence his persecutors would have their attention distracted somehow; he may have hoped that by greater wisdom, greater love, greater power of adaptation, of becoming all things to all men, he might vanquish their unreason, and gain access to their souls for the truth. In any case, his request shows us that the gospel has a battle to fight that we should hardly have anticipated-a battle with sheer perversity, with blind, wilful absurdity-and that this is one of its most dangerous foes. "Oh, that they were wise," God cries of His ancient people, "Oh, that they understood." He has the same lament to utter still. We ought to notice the reason appended to this description of Paul’s enemies: absurd and evil men, he says; for all men have not faith. Faith, of course, means the Christian faith: all men are not believers in Christ and disciples of Christ; and therefore the moral unreason and perversity of which I have spoken actually exist. He who has the faith is morally sane; he has that in him which is inconsistent with such wickedness and irrationality. We can hardly suppose, however, that the Apostle meant to state such a superfluous truism as that all men were not Christians. What he does mean is apparently that not all men have affinity for the faith, have aptitude or liking for it; as Christ said when He stood before Pilate, the voice of truth is only heard by those who are of the truth. So it was-when the apostles preached. Among their hearers there were those who were of the truth, in whom there was, as it were, the instinct for the faith; they welcomed the message. Others, again, discovered no such natural relation to the truth; in spite of the adaptation of the message to human needs, they had no sympathy with it; there was no reaction in their hearts in its favour; it was unreasonable to them; and to God they were unreasonable. The Apostle does not explain this; he simply remarks it. It is one of the ultimate and inexplicable facts of human experience; one of the meeting points of nature and freedom, which defy our philosophies. Some are of kin to the gospel when they hear it; they have faith, and justify the counsel of God, and are saved: others are of no kin to the gospel; its wisdom and love wake no response in them; they have not faith; they reject the counsel of God to their own ruin; they are preposterous and evil men. It is from such, as hinderers of the gospel, that Paul prays to be delivered. In the two verses which follow, he plays, as is were, with this word "faith." All men have not faith, he writes; but the Lord is faithful, and we have faith in the Lord touching you. Often the Apostle goes off thus at a word. Often, especially, he contrasts the trustworthiness of God with the faithlessness of men. Men may not take the gospel seriously; but the Lord does. He is in indubitable earnest with it; He may be depended upon to do His part in carrying it into effect. See how unselfishly, at this point, the Apostle turns from his own situation to that of his readers. The Lord is faithful who will stablish you, and keep you from the Evil One. Paul had left the Thessalonians exposed to very much the same trouble as beset himself wherever he went; but he had left them to One who, he well knew, was able to keep them from falling, and to preserve them against all that the devil and his agents could do. And side by side with this confidence in God stood his confidence touching the Thessalonians themselves. He was sure in the Lord that they were doing, and would continue to do, the things which he commanded them; in other words, that they would lead a worthy and becoming Christian life. The point of this sentence lies in the words "in the Lord." Apart from the Lord, Paul could have had no such confidence as he here expresses. The standard of the Christian life is lofty and severe; its purity, its unworldliness, its brotherly love, its burning hope, were new things then in the world. What assurance could there be that this standard would be maintained, when the small congregation of working people in Thessalonica was cast upon its own resources in the midst of a pagan community? None at all, apart from Christ. If He had left them along with the Apostle, no one could have risked much upon their fidelity to the Christian calling. It marks the beginning of a new era when the Apostle writes, "We have confidence in the Lord touching you." Life has a new element now, a new atmosphere, new resources; and therefore we may cherish new hopes of it. When we think of them, the words include a gentle admonition to the Thessalonians, to beware of forgetting the Lord, and trusting to themselves; that is a disappointing path, which will put the Apostle’s confidence toward them to shame. But it is an admonition as hopeful as it is gentle; reminding them that, though the path of Christian obedience cannot be trodden without constant effort, it is a path on which the Lord accompanies and upholds all who trust in Him. Here there is a lesson for us all to learn. Even those who are engaged in work for Christ are too apt to forget that the only hope of such work is the Lord. "Trust no man," says the wisest of commentators, "left to himself." Or to put the same thing more in accordance with the spirit of the text, there always is room for hope and confidence when the Lord is not forgotten. In the Lord, you may depend upon those who in themselves are weak, unstable, wilful, foolish. In the Lord, you may depend on them to stand fast, to fight their temptations, to overcome the world and the Wicked One. This kind of assurance, and the actual presence and help of Christ which justified it, are very characteristic of the New Testament. They explain the joyous, open, hopeful spirit of the early Church; they are the cause, as well as the effect, of that vigorous moral health which, in the decay of ancient civilisation, gave the Church the inheritance of the future. And still we may have confidence in the Lord that all whom He has called by His gospel will be able by His spiritual presence with them to walk worthy of that calling, and to confute alike the fears of the good and the contempt of the wicked. For the Lord is faithful, who will stablish them, and preserve them from the Evil One. Once more the Apostle bursts into prayer, as he remembers the situation of these few sheep in the wilderness: "The Lord direct your hearts into the love of God, and into the patience of Christ." Nothing could be a better commentary than one of Paul’s own affectionate Epistles on that much-discussed text. "Pray without ceasing." Look, for instance, through this one with which we are engaged. It begins with a prayer for grace and peace. This is followed by a thanksgiving in which God is acknowledged as the Author of all their graces. The first chapter ends with a prayer-an unceasing prayer-that God would count them worthy of His calling. In the second chapter Paul renews his thanksgiving on behalf of his converts, and prays again that God may comfort their hearts and stablish them in every good work and word. And here, the moment he has touched upon a new topic, he returns, as it were by instinct, to prayer. "The Lord direct your hearts." Prayer is his very element; he lives, and moves, and has his being, in God. He can do nothing, he cannot conceive of anything being done, in which God is not as directly participant as himself, or those whom he wishes to bless. Such an intense appreciation of God’s nearness and interest in life goes far beyond the attainments of most Christians; yet here, no doubt, lies a great part of the Apostle’s power. The prayer has two parts: he asks that the Lord may direct their hearts into the love of God, and into the patience of Christ. The love of God here means love to God; this is the sum of all Christian virtue, or at least the source of it. The gospel proclaims that God is love; it tells us that God has proved His love by sending His Son to die for our sins; it shows us Christ on the cross, in the passion of that love with which He loved us when He gave Himself for us; and it waits for the answer of love. It comprehended the whole effect of the gospel, the whole mystery of its saving and recreating power, when the Apostle exclaimed, "The love of Christ constraineth us." It is this experience which in the passage before us he desires for the Thessalonians. There is no one without love, or at least without the power of loving, in his heart. But what is the object of it? On what is it actually directed? The very words of the prayer imply that it is easily misdirected. But surely if love itself best merits and may best claim love, none should be the object of it before Him who is its source. God has earned our love; He desires our love; let us look to the Cross where He has given us the great pledge of His own, and yield to its sweet constraint. The old law is not abolished, but to be fulfilled: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind." If the Lord fix our souls to Himself by this irresistible attraction, nothing will be able to carry us away. Love to God is naturally joyous; but life has other experiences than those which give free scope for its joyous exercise; and so the Apostle adds, "into the patience of Jesus Christ." The Authorised Version renders, "the patient waiting for Christ," as if what the Apostle prayed for were that they might continue steadfastly to hope for the Last Advent; but although that idea is characteristic of these Epistles, it is hardly to be found in the words. Rather does he remind his readers that in the difficulties and sufferings of the path which lies before them, no strange thing is happening to them, nothing that has not already been borne by Christ in the spirit in which it ought to be borne by us. Our Saviour Himself had need of patience. He was made flesh, and all that the children of God have to suffer in this world has already been suffered by Him. This prayer is at once warning and consoling. It assures us that those who will live godly will have trials to bear: there will be untoward circumstances; feeble health; uncongenial relations; misunderstanding and malice; unreasonable and evil men; abundant calls for patience. But there will be no sense of having missed the way, or of being forgotten by God; on the contrary, there will be in Jesus Christ, ever present, a type and a fountain of patience, which will enable them to overcome all that is against them. The love of God and the patience of Christ may be called the active and the passive sides of Christian goodness, -its free, steady outgoing to Him who is the source of all blessing; and its deliberate, steady, hopeful endurance, in the spirit of Him who was made perfect through suffering. The Lord direct our hearts into both, that we may be perfect men in Christ Jesus. 2 Thessalonians 3:6 Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly, and not after the tradition which he received of us. Chapter 23 THE CHRISTIAN WORTH OF LABOUR 2 Thessalonians 3:6-15 (R.V.) THIS passage is very similar in contents to one in the fourth chapter of the First Epistle. The difference between the two is in tone; the Apostle writes with much greater severity on this than on the earlier occasion. Entreaty is displaced by command; considerations of propriety, the appeal to the good name of the church, by the appeal to the authority of Christ; and good counsel by express directions for Christian discipline. Plainly the moral situation, which had caused him anxiety some months before, had become worse rather than better. What, then, was the situation to which he here addresses himself so seriously? It was marked by two bad qualities-a disorderly walk, and idleness. "We hear," he writes, "of some that walk among you disorderly." The metaphor in the word is a military one; the underlying idea is that every man has a post in life or in the Church, and that he ought to be found, not away from his post, but at it. A man without a post is a moral anomaly. Everyone of us is part of a whole, a member of an organic body, with functions to discharge which can be discharged by no other, and must therefore bee steadily discharged by himself. To walk disorderly means to forget this, and to act as if we were independent; now at this, now at that, according to our discretion or our whim; not rendering the community a constant service, in a place of our own-a service which is valuable, largely because it can be counted on. Everyone knows the extreme unsatisfactoriness of those men who never can keep a place when they get it. Their friends plague themselves to find new openings for them; but without any gross offence, such as drunkenness or dishonesty, they persistently fall out of them; there is something about them which seems to render them incapable of sticking to their post. It is an unfortunate constitution, perhaps; but it is a grave moral fault as well. Such men settle to nothing, and therefore they render no permanent service to others; whatever they might be worth otherwise, they are worth nothing in any general estimate, simply because they cannot be, depended upon. What is more, they are worth nothing to themselves; they never accumulate moral, any more than material, capital; they have no reserve in them of fidelity, sobriety, discipline. They are to be pitied, indeed, as all sinners are to be pitied; but they are also to be commanded, in the name of the Lord Jesus, to lay their minds to their work, and to remember that steadfastness in duty is an elementary requirement of the gospel. Among the Thessalonians it was religious excitement that unsettled men, and made them abandon the routine of duty; but whatever be the cause, the evil results are the same. And, on the other hand, when we are loyal, constant, regularly at our post, however humble it be, we render a real service to others, and grow in strength of character ourselves. It is the beginning of all discipline and of all goodness to have fixed relations and fixed duties, and a fixed determination to be faithful to them. Besides this disorderly walk, with its moral instability, Paul heard of some who worked not at all. In other words, idleness was spreading in the church. It went to a great and shameless length. Christian men apparently thought nothing of sacrificing their independence, and eating bread for which they had not wrought. Such a state of affairs was peculiarly offensive at Thessalonica, where the Apostle had been careful to set so different an example. If any one could have been excused for declining to labour, on the ground that he was preoccupied with religious hopes and interests, it was he. His apostolic ministry was a charge which made great demands upon his strength; it used up the time and energy which he might otherwise have given to his trade: he might well have urged that other work was a physical impossibility. More than this, the Lord had ordained that they who preached the gospel should live by the gospel; and on that ground alone he was entitled to claim maintenance from those to whom he preached. But though he was always careful to safeguard this right of the Christian ministry, he was as careful, as a rule, to refrain from exercising it; and in Thessalonica, rather than prove a burden to the church, he had wrought and toiled, night and day, with his own hands. All this was an example for the Thessalonians to imitate; and we can understand the severity with which the Apostle treats that idleness which alleges in its defence the strength of its interest in religion. It was a personal insult. Over against this shallow pretence Paul sets the Christian, virtue of industry, with its stern law, "If any man will not work, neither let him eat." If he claims to lead a superhuman angelic life, let him subsist on angels’ food. What we find in this passage is not the exaggeration which is sometimes called the gospel of work; but the soberer and truer thought that work is essential, in general, to the Christian character. The Apostle plays with the words when he writes, "That work not at all, but are busybodies"; or, as it has been reproduced in English, who are busy only with what is not their business. This is, in point of fact, the moral danger of idleness, in those who are not otherwise vicious. Where men are naturally bad, it multiplies temptations and opportunities for sin; Satan finds some mischief still for idle hands to do. But even where it is the good who are concerned, as in the passage before us, idleness has its perils. The busybody is a real character-a man or a woman who, having no steady work to do, which must be done whether it is liked or disliked, and which is therefore wholesome, is too apt to meddle in other people’s affairs, religious or worldly; and to meddle, too, without thinking that it is meddling; an impertinence; perhaps a piece of downright, stone-blind Pharisaism: A person who is not disciplined and made wise by regular work has no idea of its moral worth and opportunities; nor has he, as a rule, any idea of the moral worthlessness and vanity of such an existence as his own. There seem to have been a good many fussy people in Thessalonica, anxious about their industrious neighbours, concerned for their lack of interest in the Lord’s coming, perpetually meddling with them-and living upon them. It is no wonder that the Apostle expresses himself with some peremptoriness: "If any man will not work, neither let him eat." The difficulty about the application of this rule is that it has no application except to the poor. In a society like our own, the busybody may be found among those for whom this law has no terror; they are idle, simply because they have an income which is independent of labour. Yet what the Apostle says has a lesson for such people also. One of the dangers of their situation is that they should underestimate the moral and spiritual worth of industry. A retired merchant, a military or naval officer on half pay, a lady with money in the funds and no responsibilities but her own-all these have a deal of time on their hands; and if they are good people, it is one of the temptations incident to their situation, that they should have what the Apostle calls a busybody’s interest in others. It need not be a spurious or an affected interest; but it misjudges the moral condition of others, and especially of the labouring classes, because it does not appreciate the moral content of a day full of work. If the work is done honestly at all, it is a thing of great price; there are virtues embedded in it, patience, courage, endurance, fidelity, which contribute as much to the true good of the world and the true enrichment of personal character as the pious solicitude of those who have nothing to do but be pious. Perhaps these are things that do not require to be said. It may rather be the case in our own time that mere industry is overvalued; and certainly a natural care for the spiritual interests of our brethren, not Pharisaic, but Christian, not meddlesome, but most earnest, can never be in excess. It is the busybody whose interference is resented; the brother, once he is recognised as a brother, is made welcome. Convinced as he is that for mankind in general "no work" means "no character," Paul commands and exhorts in the Lord Jesus all such as he has been speaking of to work with quietness, and to eat their own bread. Their excitement was both unnatural and unspiritual. It was necessary for their moral health that they should escape from it, and learn how to walk orderly, and to live at their post. The quietness of which he speaks is both inward and outward. Let them compose their minds, and cease from their fussiness; the agitation within, and the distraction without, are equally fruitless. Far more beautiful, far more Christlike, than any busybody, however zealous, is he who works with quietness and eats his own bread. Probably the bulk of the Thessalonian Church was quite sound in this matter; and it is to encourage them that the Apostle writes, "But ye, brethren, be not weary in well-doing." The bad behaviour of the busybodies may have been provoking to some, infectious in the case of others; but they are to persevere, in spite of it, in the path of quiet industry and good conduct. This has not the pretentiousness of an absorbed waiting for the Lord, and a vaunted renunciation of the world; but it has the character of moral loveliness; it exercises the new man in the powers of the new life. Along with his judgment on this moral disorder, the Apostle gives the Church directions for its treatment. It is to be met with reserve, protest, and love. First, with reserve: "Withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly, and not after the tradition which they received of us; note that man, that ye have no company with him." The Christian community has a character to keep, and that character is compromised by the misconduct of any of its members. To such misconduct, therefore, it cannot be, and should not be, indifferent: indifference would be suicidal. The Church exists to maintain a moral testimony, to keep up a certain standard of conduct among men; and when that standard is visibly and defiantly departed from, there will be a reaction of the common conscience in the Church, vigorous in proportion to her vitality. A bad man may be quite at home in the world; he may find or make a circle of associates like himself; but there is something amiss, if he does not find himself alone in the Church. Every strong life closes itself against the intrusion of what is alien to it-a strong moral life most emphatically of all. A wicked person of any description ought to feel that the public sentiment of the Church is against him, and that as long as he persists in his wickedness he is virtually, if not formally, excommunicated. The element of communion in the Church is spiritual soundness; "If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another." But if anyone begins to walk in darkness, he is out of the fellowship. The only hope for him is that he may recognise the justice of his exclusion, and, as the Apostle says, be ashamed. He is shut out from the society of others that he may be driven in upon himself, and compelled, in spite of wilfulness, to judge himself by the Christian standard. But reserve, impressive as it may be, is not enough. The erring brother is to be admonished; that is, he is to be gravely spoken to about his error. Admonition is a difficult duty. Not everyone feels at liberty, or is at liberty, to undertake it. Our own faults sometimes shut our mouths; the retort courteous, or uncourteous, to any admonition from us, is too obvious. But though such considerations should make us humble and diffident, they ought not to lead to neglect of plain duty. To think too much of one’s faults is in some circumstances a kind of perverted vanity; it is to think too much of oneself. We have all our faults, of one kind or another; but that does not prohibit us from aiding each other to overcome faults. If we avoid anger and censoriousness; if we shun, as well as disclaim, the spirit of the Pharisee, then with all our imperfections God will justify us in speaking seriously to others about their sins. We do not pretend to judge them; we only appeal to themselves to say whether they are really at ease when they stand on one side, and the word of God and the conscience of the Church on the other. In a sense, this is specially the duty of the elders of the Church. It is they who are pastors of the flock of God, and who are expressly responsible for this moral guardianship; but there is no officialism in the Christian community which limits the interest of any member in all the rest, or exempts him from the responsibility of pleading the cause of God with the erring. How many Christian duties there are which seem never to have come in the way of some Christians. Finally, in the discipline of the erring, an essential element is love.

Finally, brethren, pray for us 2 Thessalonians 3:1 The power of prayer S. Martin. The Apostle Paul is now writing from Greece, either from Athens or from Corinth. The note at the foot of the epistle mentions Athens. The same ancient subscription testifies that the first epistle was written from Athens. There is, however, the strongest reason for believing that both the epistles were written from Corinth; and without discussing the question we will assume that at least this second epistle was. Thus we see that Paul desired that the Word of the Lord might be as unimpededly spread and as illustrious in renown when he preached it in Corinth as when he had published it in Thessalonica. I. And first, AN APOSTLE ASKING HELP OF PRIVATE CHRISTIANS. God alone is really independent. Only God can say, "I am that I am." All the creatures of God within the range of our knowledge are mutually dependent, including man, the divinest of all terrestrial beings. The highest officers which the Church of Christ has known were apostles, and those were extraordinary functionaries; yet one of these, and that the greatest, pens the words of our text, saying to the young men and to the little children in the Church of Thessalonica, "Brethren, pray for us." The eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee; nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you. Now, ye are the body of Christ and members in particular, and it is just this mutual dependence which is recognized in the request of Paul as embodied in the text. There are four things which are likely to make us forget our dependence upon others — gifts or endowments, office, position or standing, and past successful service. These four things — gifts, office, position, successful service — are very likely to make us forget our dependence upon others unless we be on the watch against the mischievous influences which occasionally proceed from them. And there are four things in others which tend to make us overlook the assistance they can afford us — low temporal estate (especially in these days when wealth is becoming in our churches a false god), the possession of a single or but few talents, a retiring disposition, and the not holding any office in the Church of Christ. II. Let us look at PRAYER COOPERATING WITH PREACHING AND SECURING ITS SUCCESS. Who can tell what is being wrought, and what has been effected, by the ordinance represented by this Little word "pray"? In asking his friends in Thessalonica for assistance the apostle said to them "Pray." Prayer is very different from preaching, and yet a moment's reflection will show how they work together. Prayer speaks to God for man; preaching speaks to man for God. Prayer seeks to bring God to man; preaching aims to bring man to God. Prayer moves God towards man; preaching persuades man to seek after God. Prayer makes known unto God man's request; preaching reveals to man God's mind and will. Preaching casts in the seed; prayer brings the rain and the sunshine. Preaching deposits the leaven; prayer secures the hand which adds its working. Preaching utters the good tidings; prayer carries the sound to the ear and makes that all sensitive. Preaching is doing the practical work which man can do; prayer asks for what God only can do, and for that which is necessary to the success of that which the man can do. But although prayer occupies this lofty position, we are all more or less in danger of being diverted from it. Those who reason much upon religious matters are diverted by a secret scepticism. Those who are carnal and walk as men are diverted by their fondness for a quick and visible return for all their efforts. Those who think of themselves more highly than they ought to think are diverted by self-sufficiency. Those whose estimate of human nature is too valuable are diverted by their too strong expectation of what may be done by the simple presentation of the truth; for there are men so excessively simple that even now, after eighteen centuries of trial, they will tell you that if you only put God's truth as well as you can before men they will take it in. III. Thirdly, at A CHURCH IN A MACEDONIAN CITY BEING REQUESTED TO SYMPATHIZE WITH A CHURCH IN A CITY OF ACHAIA. This request recognizes the common relations of man and the supreme relations of Christ. Thessalonica, as the school boy knows, was a chief city of Macedonia, a then northern and Roman division of Greece, as Corinth of Achaia was the southern division of the same country. The Macedonian city had become, under the Romans, great, populous, and wealthy, and contained a large number of Jews. It has been called, very justly I think, the Liverpool of Northern Greece, on account of its commerce, ships sailing from its harbours to all parts of the then commercial world. Corinth was also a magnificent mercantile city, extremely rich and densely populated; the population consisting of Jews, Greeks, and Romans, with a smaller proportion of Jews than were found in Thessalonica. Where Thessalonica has been compared to Liverpool, Corinth has been likened to modern Paris. Now considering that the two cities were but some four or five hundred miles apart — that they were chief cities in two provinces of the same country — and that they had several national and civic features in common, the existence of sympathy, it may be said, must be taken for granted, and as scarcely worthy of remark. But would such a saying be reasonable and true? Men in great cities are generally inclined to become isolated, and exclusive, and self-absorbed. Moreover great cities are proverbially envious, and jealous, and contemptuous of each other — compare, for instance, Glasgow and Edinburgh — so that it is no small thing to have the men of one city greatly concerned for the men of another. Now Paul would have the Gentile in Thessalonica lovingly interested in the Jew of Corinth, and the Jew of Thessalonica in the Gentile of Corinth. The disposition which looks upon all men now as a family, and all Christians as a household, is preeminently the spirit of Jesus Christ, and to this Paul appeals when he writes: "Brethren, pray for us that the Word of the Lord may have free course and be glorified, even as with you." IV. The latter part of the text expresses THE ONE THING TO BE DESIRED WHEREVER THE GOSPEL IS PREACHED. This is the fourth object at which we said we would look. The language here employed is evidently derived from the public races. The word here rendered "have free course" is elsewhere translated "run." Paul in passing from Athens to Corinth would go along the isthmus where the Grecian games were celebrated. He would see the stadia and theatre; he would look upon the busts and statues of successful competitors, and would see the very trees which yielded the corruptible crown. Accustomed, like the Great Teacher, to draw his illustrations from near sources, he would naturally use an institution which increased the fame of the renowned city. Hence he speaks of the Word of the Lord running as a racer without impediment, or as a chariot without a drag on the wheel, and being honoured and applauded at the end of the course. In plain language Paul requests the Thessalonians to pray that the Word of the Lord may speedily be communicated to man, may be cordially received, may appear to be not the word of man but the Word of God, and may produce all promised results, being universally acknowledged as worthy of all acceptation. Now these words imply that there were hindrances to the spread of the Gospel in Corinth. Some of these were peculiar to Corinth and others were common to all places. Our Lord Jesus Christ had forewarned his apostles of these obstacles when he spoke to them of the hatred and persecution which they would encounter for the Gospel's sake, also in some of the similitudes by which he represented the kingdom of heaven, especially in the parable of the sower. Therein Christ teaches that the counteracting work of sense, the want of comprehension and appreciation in the hearers, the lack of depth of feeling, the cares of the world, the deceitfulness of riches, the lust of other things, the wealth and pleasures of this life impede the Word. All this every hearer has more or less experienced, and every preacher more or less observed, ever since Christ spake the parable whose lessons we are quoting. Now from the commencement of his apostleship Paul saw this. Paul was not a man to look on the most pleasant side of an object. Invariably, as we. all know, he turned a thing round and round, and looked at it on all sides. Heathenism and Judaism had opposed the spread of that Word in Thessalonica, especially Judaism. The Jews envied the apostles their miraculous powers and their influence over the Gentiles, and raising a fierce tumult against them, drove them from the city; but they could not banish the word of the Lord, and now in Corinth it found embodiment again. The luxury of the city, the vain show, the expensive habits of the people, the attractive immorality, the self-indulgent habits of the citizens, presented peculiar obstacles in Corinth, but the chief of them are common to all places, all races, and all ages of the world. Men do not care for any word of the Lord. They do not feel their need of this peculiar Word of the Lord that we call the Gospel. Men have their ears filled with the words of man. But, it here occurs to me that we have scarcely noticed recently WHAT IS MEANT BY THE WORD OF THE LORD. According to the text the Word of the Lord is something definite and positive. That of which Paul speaks, is not any or every word of the Lord, but some word which, on account of its importance and blessedness, he calls "The Word." It is the Gospel of our salvation, which is sufficiently definite to enable one to detect "another Gospel." Now some men seem to say that the Gospel of our salvation is not definite at all. As the God revealed in the Bible is a personal God, so the Word of the Lord is a peculiar and positive revelation that Paul here actually personifies, so distinct and well defined does it appear to his eye. Then this Word of the Lord has a special mission to mankind. It needs to have free course. Its free course is like the going forth of the sun from horizon to meridian, spreading on its way light and heat, fruitfulness and life. Or, returning to the allusion of the text, its free course is like the successful running of a racer, or the driving of the charioteer, upon whose supremacy is staked, not the laurel, but liberty and life — not crowns, but the very existence of peoples and of kingdoms. Hence the prayer that the Word of the Lord may have free course, and be glorified. Brethren, you who know the Word of the Lord publish it. Keep it not as a sacred trust in the treasury of your spirit. As you, then, publish the Word of the Lord, lay your account to the existence and to the manifestation of impediments. Expect to see it proceeding, sometimes, slowly as a chariot whose wheels are locked — slowly as a racer encumbered by reason of long and heavy train. Yet imagine the reverse of this — the Word of the Lord having free course. Think of this; nay, more expect this. Remove impediments by your own hands if possible; but in every instance ask the Lord who spake the Word to give His Word free course. Give others who are publishing the Word of the Lord your interest. Pray for all mothers and fathers of the land. ( S. Martin. )

3:1-5 Those who are far apart still may meet together at the throne of grace; and those not able to do or receive any other kindness, may in this way do and receive real and very great kindness. Enemies to the preaching of the gospel, and persecutors of its faithful preachers, are unreasonable and wicked men. Many do not believe the gospel; and no wonder if such are restless and show malice in their endeavours to oppose it. The evil of sin is the greatest evil, but there are other evils we need to be preserved from, and we have encouragement to depend upon the grace of God. When once the promise is made, the performance is sure and certain. The apostle had confidence in them, but that was founded upon his confidence in God; for there is otherwise no confidence in man. He prays for them for spiritual blessings. It is our sin and our misery, that we place our affections upon wrong objects. There is not true love of God, without faith in Jesus Christ. If, by the special grace of God, we have that faith which multitudes have not, we should earnestly pray that we may be enabled, without reserve, to obey his commands, and that we may be enabled, without reserve, to the love of God, and the patience of Christ. 3:6-15 Those who have received the gospel, are to live according to the gospel. Such as could work, and would not, were not to be maintained in idleness. Christianity is not to countenance slothfulness, which would consume what is meant to encourage the industrious, and to support the sick and afflicted. Industry in our callings as men, is a duty required by our calling as Christians. But some expected to be maintained in idleness, and indulged a curious and conceited temper. They meddled with the concerns of others, and did much harm. It is a great error and abuse of religion, to make it a cloak for idleness or any other sin. The servant who waits for the coming of his Lord aright, must be working as his Lord has commanded. If we are idle, the devil and a corrupt heart will soon find us somewhat to do. The mind of man is a busy thing; if it is not employed in doing good, it will be doing evil. It is an excellent, but rare union, to be active in our own business, yet quiet as to other people's. If any refused to labour with quietness, they were to note him with censure, and to separate from his company, yet they were to seek his good by loving admonitions. The Lords is with you while you are with him. Hold on your way, and hold on to the end. We must never give over, or tire in our work. It will be time enough to rest when we come to heaven. 3:16-18 The apostle prays for the Thessalonians. And let us desire the same blessings for ourselves and our friends. Peace with God. This peace is desired for them always, or in every thing. Peace by all means; in every way; that, as they enjoyed the means of grace, they might use all methods to secure peace. We need nothing more to make us safe and happy, nor can we desire any thing better for ourselves and our friends, than to have God's gracious presence with us and them. No matter where we are, if God be with us; nor who is absent, if God be present. It is through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that we hope to have peace with God, and to enjoy the presence of God. This grace is all in all to make us happy; though we wish ever so much to others, there remains enough for ourselves.